let's talk about taxes, which has gotten most of the attention, congressman van hollen, john boehner offered a compromise this week and he said, yes, i'm willing to put more revenue on the table, but, through closing deductions and ending loopholes, not through raising rates. can you accept a compromise as part of this whole deal, that doesn't raise the bush tax rate on the wealthy? >> well, here's the issue. how much revenue are we going to generate as part of the balanced package and i take my lead from simpson-bowles in their framework and they assume the amount of revenue as if you started tax reform from a 39% rate. that is part of their built-in assumption and i'm all for doing tax reform. the issue is, from what starting point. and i think the simpson-bowles starting point, which assumes that revenue from 39%, is the right way to go to get the next they got in hitting the deficit reduction target and if what speaker boehner was saying, he is truly willing to get what we consider congressional budget office scorable revenue, then we can begin to work with one another. if what w